


There's More To Me Than Human Flesh

by gaialux



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5 Times, Bisexuality, Canonical Character Death, College, F/F, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-31
Packaged: 2018-02-19 20:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2401373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaialux/pseuds/gaialux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby had been on Earth a few times before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's More To Me Than Human Flesh

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wicked_wyvern](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wicked_wyvern/gifts).



> NOTE: If it's someone's particular squick, please note that Ruby is possessing a concious (or semi-concious) vessel throughout a portion of this fic.

_1._

The first time Ruby is on Earth is the time when she first lived.

A time where everyone around her is dying from festering sores and ratcheting coughs as families are locked behind doors to die.

And _witchcraft_. Witchcraft teaches her to survive, to heal others, to fill in those ten years she has with light and hope and healing.

She's still not so sure if it was worth it.

 

_2._

The second time Ruby comes back, the year is 1848.

She thinks the decision -- Lilith's-- was nothing more than a different form of torture. But she's already faced everything they can give her; Psychological, physical, and beyond. This is just another test she passes with flying colours.

They send her back down, of course.

 

_3._

The year is 2003 and Ruby is back on Earth again.

This time she sets foot on the sunny shores of California, bare-toes dipping into the warm golden sand in the body of a Stanford University student. She does think, momentarily, that the ethics involved should bother her more. But the girl inside shuts up after only three days and Ruby is free to enjoy the body as her own.

It's Azazel who gives her instructions this time around. She is told to keep an eye on Sam Winchester when the time comes. Only she's not sure when that will be or how to find her. Azazel promises to guide her soon.

He stops talking after the  _soon_.

So Ruby is free to explore.

She takes on the life of that girl -- her name is Summer Devereaux and she is an English major. Ruby gets to spend months learning about 17th century Romanticism while biting her tongue at the bits and pieces she picked up on world-view take two.

In one of her classes, always sitting two seats in front and three across from Ruby, is a pretty girl she soon learns is named Jessica.

"Jess," she corrects with an outstretched hand that Ruby takes. It's warm and Ruby's only beginning to understand, again, that this is the feel of human touch.

"I'm Summer."

And that, simply enough, is how it begins.

~ ♥ ~

Jess lives off-campus, in the house of a friend who's living abroad for the next three years. She's looking for romomates, she says, and Ruby doesn't quite get the implication immediately. Instead they spend time going over class notes while sprawled out on the floor with cardboard cups of coffee by their side and a radiator buzzing heat nearby.

"Nobody really mimicked Shakespeare," Jess says as she runs a hand through her hair. Ruby has taken notice of how her curls change throughout the day, beginning in tight ringlets and slowly stretching out into strong waves.

"No," Ruby says. She puts her pen down on the paper she's hardly written on. The schoolgirl thing is getting old after months inside the same body. She needs to change. Soon. "I suppose not."

Jess rolls onto her back and her eyes flicker from the ceiling over to Ruby. "What are you planning to do after college?"

Maybe that should have been something she rehearsed before appearing in classes. Instead Ruby decides to shrug. "No idea."

"Yeah," Jess agrees. "Too hard to decide."

The analogue clock above the mantle ticks over to the hour and Ruby is surprised to see it's five already, the sky outside slowly becoming dark. But it's not like time means a whole lot to her; she eats because she likes the taste of food rather than on a schedule, and attends the classes that strike her interest.

Jess has rolled back onto her stomach and is now spinning Ruby's pen between her fingers, catching a few blue squiggles on the lined white paper. "What about Halloween? You dressing up for anything?"

 _A demon_ , is the first thing that comes to her mind.  _Switch on the black eyes or erupt into a cloud of smoke. That would be the best costume. Could win them all._ Instead she says, "I don't really celebrate Halloween."

Jess wrinkles her nose. "Spoil sport."

"Hey." Ruby rolls her eyes. "I'm not ten."

"But you  _are_ nineteen and you _are_ in college--" Jess flashes her a grin of pearly white teeth. "--live a little."

Yeah. Live. Ruby hasn't done that in a while, and never sees it changing. It hardly took any time on the rack, really, just a couple of decades of torture and she was ready to be Lilith's bitch. For the last few months she'd almost completely avoided thinking about Lilith and Hell. Almost. She was living a life -- admittedly in a  _vastly_ wrong time period -- that was always supposed to be hers. It had been ripped from her too quickly, but she'd made that choice. Given that deal. Sold herself away.

Jess' hand touches Ruby and pulls her out of those thoughts, but it still takes Ruby a moment to get back to where she is. And that isn't the night where a hell hound tore her to threads while the demon laughed and laughed and laughed.

"Are you okay?" Jess asks, her head to one side.

"Yeah." Ruby nods, tight. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Leaning in closer and Ruby can further see the blue of Jess' eyes -- flecked with green, actually; she hadn't noticed that before. Something in the back of Ruby's mind doesn't shut up about how Jess might  _see_. Might see her true face, her scars, her history. But Jess remains smiling and still. Nothing changes.

Not until Jess leans forward and presses her lips against Ruby's. Ruby might gasp, or maybe sigh, or perhaps it's all in her mind. What she  _does_ do for certain is reach up a hand to twist it in Jess' hair and kiss her back harder.

Right now.  _Right now_. Ruby can just be Ruby. Nobody has to know she's a demon.

She doesn't want to wonder how long this will last.

 

_4._

This is the time when she finds Sam Winchester. Sometimes she thinks she might be more human, even after all she does.

Lilith sends her back of course.

 

_5._

And this is the time when she dies.


End file.
